i have no idea how ww1 will end except Romania wins. Germany is losing quite bad won't retake Alsace to me means they will lose. The highlighting of Austria being reluctant in this war means they might separate peace out betraying Germany. bedrocks for fascist Italy laid down, so they kinda need to lose but also need another great power Italy alone isn't that big of threat. Then France and ottomans cold war is happening. Germany is in a mess losing on both fronts and invaded Belgium.
Osman Reborn; The Survival of Ottoman Democracy [An Ottoman TL set in the 1900s]
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
Chapter 21: Time to fight
Chapter 21: Time to fight
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“The Battle of Liege was the very first engagement in the German invasion of Belgium. The attack on the city took place on the 5th of March and lasted until the 16th. The fortresses surrounding the city were made in the 19th century and whilst the city had been kept supplied by the Belgians and upgraded every five years or so, the ring of 12 fortresses surrounding Liege were unprepared for the modern heavy howitzers that the Germans rained down upon on them. The fortresses and their defenses broke under immense german bombardment and forced the Belgians to withdraw to their second defensive line. At the same time, King Albert I of Belgium took personal command of the Belgian Army sending a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II stating that ‘I hope our personal relationship is not destroyed by this war, however I must take the interests of my country at heart first and foremost.’
Albert I of Belgium
Kaiser Wilhelm II to this end forced the German government to stop the process of rescinding the German honors given to Albert I and the two would remain good friends even after the war. But for the moment, the two remained enemies. On the 12th of March, King Albert I sent Lieutenant General Leon de Witte of the Belgian 1st Army to delay the Germans near Diest. Albert I intended to use the time brought by the battle, whatever its result to evacuate the women and children of Brussels whilst simultaneously stripping the Belgian National Treasury and transporting it to Britain in case of the worst situation. Albert I sent Charles de Broqueville, the Prime Minister of Belgium to form the government in Nantes, forming a government in exile, recognizing the fact that Brussels couldn’t be defended for long.
At Diest, the De Witte managed to defend the Belgian positions near the river Gete and forced the Germans to stay on the other side of the bank for a whole day. During the night, Belgian codebreakers and decryptions managed to temporarily break into the German codes and found out that the Germans were going to head in force towards De Witte and his forces and cross the river using their numerical advantage against the Belgian forces. Acting on this information, the Belgian troops crossed the river at night and wreaked havoc on the German camp, taking them and their commander, General Georg von der Marwitz by complete surprise, forcing them to postpone the crossing of the river for another day. The Belgians then made a fortified position near Diest consisting of 30 heavy guns and bombarded the German positions until the German heavy guns arrived and managed to break the Belgian bombardment. Recognizing that he could not delay the Germans for long after this, De Witte ordered all of the bridges across the Gete river to be detonated and destroyed to cause the Germans more time to cross. Belgian engineers blew the bridge over and destroyed the 4 main bridges across the river and De Witte retreated back to Brussels with the remainder of his army informing Albert I of the situation. De Witte and Albert I had brought Brussels valuable time by allowing thousands of women and children to escape and the national treasury was already at sea en route to London. On March 25, 1915, the Germans occupied an abandoned Brussels, with the Belgian capital to become the first of many European capitals to be occupied during the Great War.
The belgians destroyed the bridges across the Gete
The Germans continued their advance into Belgian territory and the Germans decided to take care of the Belgian defensive parameter around Namur and break into French territory whilst a detachment was sent north to deal with the last Belgian fortress of Antwerp. The Belgian forces under King Albert I ordered the troops at Namur to defend the area as long as they could to buy the French and British more time to enter Belgium and entrench in their defensive positions whilst mobilization continued in Flanders to bolster the Belgian army. This was essentially a suicide mission however the Belgian commander Edouard Michel accepted the order and told his monarch that he could delay the germans for a maximum of two weeks with the amount of men and ammunition that he had. Albert I accepted the answer and told Michel to delay the Germans for two weeks at Namur. Marshal von Kluck who led the German army through Namur were stuck at the Siege of Namur for 11 days whilst the British Expeditionary Army led by Horace Smith Dorien entered Belgium to bolster the defenses of Belgium. The Germans broke through the Belgian defenses on April 2, and occupied Namur. Michel was killed during the chaos of the fall of Namur and King Albert I posthumously raised him to the title of Baron and made his family the Barony of Namur in his honor.
Excepting the Battle of Mulhouse, all of the German battles in the western front had been victories and the Germans advanced through Belgium at a frightening pace. However their first defeat was to come at the hand of General Smith-Dorien at the Battle of Charleroi. At the old battlefields of Waterloo which had been subsumed by the growing urban settlements of modern Belgium, the British were made to entrench by Smith-Dorien on April 1, 1915. On April 6, 1915, von Kluck and his armies assaulted the area which was defended by 76,000 British troops, around sixty percent of the entire BEF. The British held the line against the German 1st Army and inflicted a large amount of disproportionate casualties, showing that the British professional troops were still dangerous forces to be reckoned with, despite their small size. On April 9, von Kluck withdrew from the Battle of Charleroi recognizing that he could not defeat the British at their entrenched position, and instead focused further south at the British flanks at Joncret which was defended by the French Fifth Army and pushed the French away, placing the British position at risk, forcing the British to give up Charleroi.
General Horace Smith-Dorrien, leader of the BEF
With the upper French plains open for invasion, the allies needed the Belgians to hold out in Antwerp as best as they could. However the city of Antwerp and its national redoubt was penetrated by the Germans on April 7 and the outer ring of forts fell pretty quickly. On the 9th of April the inner citadel of forts fell and the Belgian army fell back to Ghent where Albert I and Smith-Dorien planned to defend Belgium once and for all.
From April 9 to 15, the Germans tried to capture Ghent, however the Belgians and British used the positions at the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal to defend themselves and the waterways were flooded by the Belgians to stop the Germans. The Germans unable to advance further into Belgian territory west of the canal, decided to entrench themselves by constructing defensive trenches for their own. The British and Belgians did the same. Thus began, the era of Trench warfare.” The Invasion and Rape of Belgium: Modern Atrocities. Bruges Publishing, 2001.
“When war had broken out between the British and the allies of Italy and Austria-Hungary, the Royal Navy and the French Navy had recognized that the Austrian and Italian navies combined were a very credible threat to the supremacy of the Entente at sea in the Mediterranean. The Entente could not rely on the Imperial Russian Black Sea Fleet as the Ottomans would not allow any warship to pass the straits without permission and the British knew that the Ottomans would demand something in return if they allowed passage. They were not willing to give up the Ottoman Capitulations to Britain and France.
British Med Fleet at Malta 1914
The Mediterranean Fleet based in Malta in 1915 when war broke out consisting of the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (HMS Indomitable, HMS Inflexible, HMS Indefatigable), the 1st Cruiser Squadron (HMS Black Prince, HMS Duke of Edinburgh, HMS Warrior, HMS Chatham, HMS Dublin, HMS Gloucester, HMS Weymouth) and the 5th Destroyer Flotilla (HMS Solebay, HMS Cadiz, HMS Gabbard, HMS St. James, HMS St. Kitts, HMS Sluys).
Moreover, the British fleets at Alexandria and Gibraltar played host to 17 Cruisers (Astraea, Dido, Isis, Thetis, Venus, Vindictive, Diana, Naiad, Gladiator, Intrepid, Hermione, Furious, Barham, Pyramus, Pioneer, Pandora, Pegasus) and 16 destroyers (Wolverine, Scorpion, Scourge, Savage, Renard, Rattlesnake, Racoon, Pincher, Mosquito, Harpy, Grampus, Grasshopper, Foxhound, Bulldog, Beagle, Basilisk).
The major plan for the British and French was to secure the Straits of Sicily to allow passage of the convoys in the area, and to secure the route to Malta. Inflexible, and Indomitable led the Mediterranean Fleet out of Malta alongside the Black Prince, Warrior, Weymouth and Gloucester, and Solebay and Cadiz and Sluys to group up with the Isis, Thetis, Venus, Diana, Harpy, Grampus, Grasshopper and Basilisk which were coming from Gibraltar to open the sea lanes across the western Mediterranean. They were aided in this endeavor by the French Mediterranean fleet as 7 French cruisers and 10 destroyers joined up with this British detachment to secure the western seas.
An austrian dreadnought in the med.
The Italian navy was wracked with problems however. Around 60% of the coal used by the Italians came from Britain and the loss of British coal meant that the Italians could not sally out with their navy at will and the Italians could not replace their losses with Austrian and German coal completely and was forced to subsidize a third of their coal. Nonetheless, with 6 dreadnoughts, the Italian navy was still a powerful foe, and they Italians too had their eyes of the Straits of Sicily and the Italian Admiralty and the Austrian Admiralty began to eye up the Straits of Sicily to attack and blockade the Eastern Mediterranean against the Entente. The Austrians agreed to send one of their dreadnoughts whilst the Italians decided to send 2 dreadnoughts into the straits to attack and blockade the two halves of the Mediterranean sea. As the Italian and Austrian navies went out to attack the Royal Navy and French Navy, the cataclysmic Battle of the Straits of Sicily was about to begin.” Naval Operations in the Great War: Mediterranean Edition. Osprey Publishing, 2008.
“After the victory at Kardzhali, the Ottomans were confronted by the age old problem, of what it could do against Bulgaria now. Many advocated to stay on the defense and let the Bulgarians bleed themselves dry against the Ottoman defenses at the Rhodope Lines. The Ottomans were however becoming cautious of the surprising manner with which the forts in France and Belgium were collapsing against the German heavy guns and were not willing to let their forts to fall down as it was the last line of defense connecting Ottoman Thrace to Ottoman Macedonia.
Yaver Pasha on April 19th, was given the permission to seek an invasion of Bulgaria and initiated his plan by coordinated it with Bulgarian Front Commander Mustafa Kemal and Neshat Bey. Mustafa Kemal was busy in the upcoming landings in Burgas, and advised Yaver Pasha to invade Bulgaria in a series of small probes and to cut off the Plovdiv-Harmanli line near Haskovo to deny the Bulgarians a serious logistical advantage. Neshat Bey promised to launch the X Corps into Velingrad in the west to distract the Bulgarians making them unable to reinforce their positions in the east against the invasion planned by Yaver Pasha. For the Ottomans it was imperative to throw Bulgaria out of the war. The Bulgarians were the most militarized of their enemies, and their army was too close to Constantinople for comfort. The Ottoman Minister of War, Mahmud Shevket Pasha approved of the offensive named the Plovdiv Offensive and gave the Offensive jurisdiction over 50 warplanes, around 1/3 of the entire Ottoman Air Force at the time. Yaver Pasha gathered around 80,000 men consisting of 4 divisions (the 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Mountaineer Division, 4th Cavalry Division, 7th Redif Division) and began to move inland into the Bulgarian frontier where they were confronted by the Bulgarian 3rd Army commanded by Deputy Commander Mihail Savov who had around 110,000 men under arms to fight against the Ottomans.
Meanwhile at the same time complementing the Plovdiv Offensive was an Ottoman probe into Lozengrad near Bulgarian Thrace commanded by Abdullah Pasha whose intention was draw as much Bulgarian troops as he could onto his 25,000 troops to divert the Bulgarian attentions. Neshat Bey conducted his own diversionary probe into Velingrad. Yaver Pasha and Savov clashed for the first time at the Battle of Beli Plast. It was here that Yaver Pasha decided to look into the newly formed aerial and ground combined tactics. He used Mehmed Essat Pasha’s artillery bombardment, aerial bombardment and simultaneous infantry assault tactic and attacked the Bulgarian positions in a massive blitz of combined arms warfare. The ottoman shell burst attacks and machine gun attacks on the Bulgarian positions began to seriously frighten Bulgarian troops and were beginning to fall back to their defensive positions near Haskovo.
Mihail Savov.
Savov was settling into defensive parameters around Haskovo and was resupplied by the Plovdiv-Haramanli railway which Yaver Pasha was directed to take action against. Yaver Pasha split his forces into two battle lines. The main center and right was composed of 50,000 troops whilst his left flank coming from the Trakietz lake would consisting of 30,000 men commanded by General Muftar Pasha. Yaver Pasha commanded the man detachment and came up from Teketo towards Konush on May 21st, 1915 and became involved with fighting with the Bulgarian advance guard positions at Voyvodovo. At Voyvodovo, the Bulgarians managed to delay the superior Ottoman army with a massive amount of casualties being split for the nearby redoubts as the Bulgarians in the area held the redoubt stubbornly. A flanking action by one of the mountaineer regiments towards the north near the Konushian marshes led to the collapse of the Voyvodovo Bulgarian defenses and the Bulgarian defenders retreated to Malevo in an orderly fashion without giving the Ottomans an opportunity to exploit a disorderly retreat. Yaver Pasha continued to march up north and encountered heavy resistance as Bulgarian reserves based at Malevo grouped with the Voyvodovo detachments and attacked the Ottoman columns near Northern Konush. The surprise attack by the Bulgarians led by General Mikhail Debrov managed to push the Ottomans back to Konush and the Bulgarians attacked with multiple coordinated assaults with artillery fire and mortar fire. The Ottomans had to fall back to Konush, however did so in an orderly fashion. The past half a decades military reforms within the army were showing as the veterans of multiple uprisings and the Italo-Ottoman War stayed impassive and fought against the well-trained by inexperienced Bulgarian troops. Yaver Pasha regrouped at Konush and communicated with the Adrianople Air Detachment and asked for aerial bombardment and support. The Ottoman aerial regiments responded with half an hour and bombarded the marshy wasteland in northern Konusha and forced the Bulgarians back. The Ottomans seized this opportunity and flooded across the Konusha marshes embankments forced Dobrev to retreat back to a pre-arranged retreating corner at Stamboliyski.
Meanwhile Muftar Pasha came up in a slow fashion, cautious as he was for a general, and reached Sirakovo whilst the Ottomans bombarded Konusha for the second time. Muftar Pasha then paused for a few minutes to regain order in his army and then moved north through the Trakietz marshlands and moved slowly, as he did not wish for his troops to die in the marshes instead of actually dying from fighting the enemy. He reached Vagalorovo and moved further north however were attacked by the right flank at Garvanovo by the Bulgarian troops placed there. Muftar Pasha was held up and decided to stay down and defend himself, believing that he had a numerical inferiority against the Bulgarians, which he did. His 30,000 troops were being beset with 36,000 troops.
Meanwhile Yaver Pasha attacked the frontal entrance to Haskovo and attacked Savov directly. Savov then commanded the regrouping Debrov in the east to strike at the Ottomans from their right flank and catch them by surprise. This was anticipated by Yaver Pasha who had sent scouts ahead to keep tabs on Debrov and his flanking force. The 1st Brigade of the 3rd Division began to give way against Debrov’s troops and created an illusion of retreating whilst two regiments stayed right where they were created gap in the ottoman lines which the Bulgarians filled in. The two regiments then surrounded the Bulgarians and encircled Debrov’s 18,000 troops around the area. Debrov and around 7,000 troops managed to fight there way out much to the fury and anger of Yaver Pasha, however the rest were either taken prisoner or killed in a furious melee of fighting. Savov attacked at this moment trying to break through the continuous bombardment of his position and was unsuccessful in his endeavor.
Red lines are Ottomans, Green lines are Bulgarians,
Muftar Pasha successfully pushed the Bulgarians at Garvanovo back and turned to Haskovo and came towards the western entrance to the city, capturing the railway lines leading up to the city and capturing the supplies in the train barges before attacking the western approaches to the city. Attacked and beset on two sides, Savov had no choice but to sound the retreat.
Yaver Pasha’s army had lost around 7800 men in this battle as casualties in heavy fighting around the city, and in comparison the Bulgarians lost around 5000 men killed and wounded whilst around 6000 men were captured by the Ottomans. The city of Haskovo was captured and the railway line which connected western Bulgaria to eastern Bulgaria was cut off. However this was not the worst news for Bulgaria this month. The month of May was not going to be kind to the Bulgarians.” Ottoman Military History in the 20th Century, University of Konstantiniyye, 2019.
“The Ottoman Dreadnought Yavuz Selim was transferred from the Aegean Fleet to the Black Sea Fleet alongside two destroyers and 1 cruiser. This was done in conjunction with the other ships of the Black Sea fleet as this miniature armada appeared on the horizon of Burgas City on the 24th of May, 1915. The Ottoman Dreadnought was a terrifying sight for many Bulgarians as they knew that the Ottomans wouldn’t bring it out against them without being up to something very dangerous. The ottoman dreadnought, protected cruisers, and destroyers opened fire at the Bulgarian coastal defenses in and around Burgas with some mild air support. At the same time, Ottoman troop transports from Constantinople and Zonguldak left harbor carrying a total of 60,000 troops consisting of the 11th Infantry Division, 5th infantry Division and 6th Infantry Division.
Yavuz Selim outside of Burgas Harbor in 1916;
The Bulgarian shore defenses did not manage to sink any ship, however managed to strike one cruiser and one destroyer enough to make them disengage from the bombardment and forcing them back to Constantinople for repairs. However the Ottomans continued to bombard Sarafovo and Kraymorie, intending to destroy the shore defenses and to soften up the resistance against any amphibious landing. The 5th Danubian Division which was stationed in Burgas was a reservist division and was caught off guard by the massive ottoman shore bombardment of the port and was unable to respond properly. The Bulgarian barracks near Atiya soon found themselves under heavy shore bombardment and many heavy artillery pieces of the Bulgarians were broken apart by the relentless shore bombardment. On the 26th of May after two days of massive bombardment left the Bulgarians unable to respond other than sending one more division, the 4th Sofia Infantry Division to the area in case of a ‘raid’.
The Ottoman 6th Division landed at Atiya with its forward regiments managing to defeat the disoriented small Bulgarian garrison in the area and managed to capture the barracks in the area. However the Bulgarians pulled in their last light artillery in the region and sent volleys of artillery fire at the area to force the Ottomans to stay in Atiya and did not break out of the small area. The Ottoman 11th Infantry Division landed at Kraymorie and found heavier resistance here. The Ottomans had to face the fresh 4th Sofia Infantry Division’s regiments in this area, and the Ottomans could only land due to the shore bombardment and assistance given to the Ottoman amphibious landings by the Ottoman aerial support which pushed the Bulgarians in Klaymorie back to Burgas citadel. At the same time the 6th infantry division landed in Sarafovo without much Bulgarian resistance in the area. The Bulgarian troops in the region decided to retreat back to Burgas city and barricaded themselves to fight against the Ottomans on more even terms, to consolidate the 40,000 troops they had in the region. The Ottomans soon pressed their way all the way to the Bulgarian defenses on the outskirts of the city as they crossed Lake Mandrensko and Lake Burgas as well as Izgrev in the north and Rudnik in the south. The Ottoman maritime navy began to supply the Ottoman troops in the ground with heavy artillery and the Ottoman Air Corps began to bombard the city with renewed ferocity. For five days the Ottomans bombarded the city with frightening assaults. Mustafa Kemal, who personally led the attack and the amphibious attack, made his base of operations at Atiya and commanded the assault attempts. On May 31st, the sixth assault attempt managed to break a hole through one of the defensive citadels, and the Ottoman troops poured in the city. The remaining Bulgarian troops decided to retreat from the city and retreated to Vratitsa, with some ~23,000 men. The Battle of Burgas was a very bloody affair. Around 8,000 Ottoman troops were either killed or permanently wounded in the amphibious attack and many were wounded for days. The Bulgarians lost some 10,000 men in the attack, with most of the casualties coming from the shore bombardment which had caught the Bulgarians off-guard. Around 5000 troops were captured by the Ottomans during the battle. Whilst Mustafa Kemal had won a great victory by securing an amphibious victory, the Ottoman troops were so tried by the end of the Battle of Burgas, that he sent a telegram back to the Ministry of War telling them that the troops were not ready to move for around two weeks.” The Battle for Bulgaria: 1915. Varna Publishing, 2012.
Ottoman troops at Burgas
“Romanian Prime Minister Ion Bratianu was the prime minister and head of government of the Romanian nation during the starting of the Great War and the Balkan War. In May 2nd, 1915, Ahmet Riza sent a delegation to Romania, seeking a military alliance with the Romanian nation aimed squarely against Bulgaria. Led by Aegeus Baros, an Ottoman Greek diplomat, the Ottoman delegation began to negotiate secret terms with the Romanians seeking to make Romania enter the Balkan war on their side.
Aegeus Baros pointed out to King Ferdinand I and Bratianu that the Romanians stood to win at every side during this era of great conflicts. He pointed out that a Central Power defeat would see Romania gain control of Transylvania, whilst an Entente defeat would see Romania assume power over Besserabia. However he pointed out that moving against the Central Powers or Entente were both very very dangerous proposals and could risk Romania falling under occupation itself and the nation being stripped of its independence and sovereignty. Russia and Austria-Hungary were military giants and could squat Romania like nothing should they wish to. Baros pointed at Bulgaria however. Bulgaria was already struggling against the Ottoman empire and its reformed armies and the Romanian claimed lands of South Dobrudja were ripe for the taking and in comparison to attacking either Austria-Hungary or Russia, it was a much more safer proposal as well. In order to sweeten the deal, Baros threw in the Ottoman exclave of Ada Kaleh and placed it on the table for Romania, which if the Romanians accepted, would extend Romanian domination of the eastern Danubian plain.
Romania needed more however, and asked for economic aid against Bulgaria and a favorable trade treaty. The former was accepted, however the latter was rejected by the government in Constantinople. Instead, the Ottomans focused on the growing resentment between Sofia and Bucharest to maneuver its diplomatic outreach to the Romanians, inducing them to fight on their side. Make no mistake, the Romanians had no lost love for the Ottomans, however the Ottomans were in no position to menace the Romanians in the future, however the Bulgarians were and the nearest immediate threat for Romanian territorial integrity, Bulgaria’s own interests in northern Dobrudja weren’t a well kept secret after all.
Ferdinand I of Romania.
With the added sweetener of Ada Kaleh and economic aid and subsidization, the Romanians accepted the offer. King Ferdinand I asked Baros to give Romania 1 month time to prepare after which at the end of June or in early July, the Romanians would enter the war on the side of the Ottomans. This was a massive diplomatic victory for the Ottomans, and tide of the Balkan War were starting to change, even though King Nicholas I of Montenegro continued to rampage in Albania and Kosovo with the Ottomans distracted with Bulgaria and Sofia.” The Romanian-Ottoman Alliance: How it Started and How it Endured. Bucharest Publishing, 1998.
***
“The Battle of Liege was the very first engagement in the German invasion of Belgium. The attack on the city took place on the 5th of March and lasted until the 16th. The fortresses surrounding the city were made in the 19th century and whilst the city had been kept supplied by the Belgians and upgraded every five years or so, the ring of 12 fortresses surrounding Liege were unprepared for the modern heavy howitzers that the Germans rained down upon on them. The fortresses and their defenses broke under immense german bombardment and forced the Belgians to withdraw to their second defensive line. At the same time, King Albert I of Belgium took personal command of the Belgian Army sending a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II stating that ‘I hope our personal relationship is not destroyed by this war, however I must take the interests of my country at heart first and foremost.’
Albert I of Belgium
Kaiser Wilhelm II to this end forced the German government to stop the process of rescinding the German honors given to Albert I and the two would remain good friends even after the war. But for the moment, the two remained enemies. On the 12th of March, King Albert I sent Lieutenant General Leon de Witte of the Belgian 1st Army to delay the Germans near Diest. Albert I intended to use the time brought by the battle, whatever its result to evacuate the women and children of Brussels whilst simultaneously stripping the Belgian National Treasury and transporting it to Britain in case of the worst situation. Albert I sent Charles de Broqueville, the Prime Minister of Belgium to form the government in Nantes, forming a government in exile, recognizing the fact that Brussels couldn’t be defended for long.
At Diest, the De Witte managed to defend the Belgian positions near the river Gete and forced the Germans to stay on the other side of the bank for a whole day. During the night, Belgian codebreakers and decryptions managed to temporarily break into the German codes and found out that the Germans were going to head in force towards De Witte and his forces and cross the river using their numerical advantage against the Belgian forces. Acting on this information, the Belgian troops crossed the river at night and wreaked havoc on the German camp, taking them and their commander, General Georg von der Marwitz by complete surprise, forcing them to postpone the crossing of the river for another day. The Belgians then made a fortified position near Diest consisting of 30 heavy guns and bombarded the German positions until the German heavy guns arrived and managed to break the Belgian bombardment. Recognizing that he could not delay the Germans for long after this, De Witte ordered all of the bridges across the Gete river to be detonated and destroyed to cause the Germans more time to cross. Belgian engineers blew the bridge over and destroyed the 4 main bridges across the river and De Witte retreated back to Brussels with the remainder of his army informing Albert I of the situation. De Witte and Albert I had brought Brussels valuable time by allowing thousands of women and children to escape and the national treasury was already at sea en route to London. On March 25, 1915, the Germans occupied an abandoned Brussels, with the Belgian capital to become the first of many European capitals to be occupied during the Great War.
The belgians destroyed the bridges across the Gete
The Germans continued their advance into Belgian territory and the Germans decided to take care of the Belgian defensive parameter around Namur and break into French territory whilst a detachment was sent north to deal with the last Belgian fortress of Antwerp. The Belgian forces under King Albert I ordered the troops at Namur to defend the area as long as they could to buy the French and British more time to enter Belgium and entrench in their defensive positions whilst mobilization continued in Flanders to bolster the Belgian army. This was essentially a suicide mission however the Belgian commander Edouard Michel accepted the order and told his monarch that he could delay the germans for a maximum of two weeks with the amount of men and ammunition that he had. Albert I accepted the answer and told Michel to delay the Germans for two weeks at Namur. Marshal von Kluck who led the German army through Namur were stuck at the Siege of Namur for 11 days whilst the British Expeditionary Army led by Horace Smith Dorien entered Belgium to bolster the defenses of Belgium. The Germans broke through the Belgian defenses on April 2, and occupied Namur. Michel was killed during the chaos of the fall of Namur and King Albert I posthumously raised him to the title of Baron and made his family the Barony of Namur in his honor.
Excepting the Battle of Mulhouse, all of the German battles in the western front had been victories and the Germans advanced through Belgium at a frightening pace. However their first defeat was to come at the hand of General Smith-Dorien at the Battle of Charleroi. At the old battlefields of Waterloo which had been subsumed by the growing urban settlements of modern Belgium, the British were made to entrench by Smith-Dorien on April 1, 1915. On April 6, 1915, von Kluck and his armies assaulted the area which was defended by 76,000 British troops, around sixty percent of the entire BEF. The British held the line against the German 1st Army and inflicted a large amount of disproportionate casualties, showing that the British professional troops were still dangerous forces to be reckoned with, despite their small size. On April 9, von Kluck withdrew from the Battle of Charleroi recognizing that he could not defeat the British at their entrenched position, and instead focused further south at the British flanks at Joncret which was defended by the French Fifth Army and pushed the French away, placing the British position at risk, forcing the British to give up Charleroi.
General Horace Smith-Dorrien, leader of the BEF
With the upper French plains open for invasion, the allies needed the Belgians to hold out in Antwerp as best as they could. However the city of Antwerp and its national redoubt was penetrated by the Germans on April 7 and the outer ring of forts fell pretty quickly. On the 9th of April the inner citadel of forts fell and the Belgian army fell back to Ghent where Albert I and Smith-Dorien planned to defend Belgium once and for all.
From April 9 to 15, the Germans tried to capture Ghent, however the Belgians and British used the positions at the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal to defend themselves and the waterways were flooded by the Belgians to stop the Germans. The Germans unable to advance further into Belgian territory west of the canal, decided to entrench themselves by constructing defensive trenches for their own. The British and Belgians did the same. Thus began, the era of Trench warfare.” The Invasion and Rape of Belgium: Modern Atrocities. Bruges Publishing, 2001.
“When war had broken out between the British and the allies of Italy and Austria-Hungary, the Royal Navy and the French Navy had recognized that the Austrian and Italian navies combined were a very credible threat to the supremacy of the Entente at sea in the Mediterranean. The Entente could not rely on the Imperial Russian Black Sea Fleet as the Ottomans would not allow any warship to pass the straits without permission and the British knew that the Ottomans would demand something in return if they allowed passage. They were not willing to give up the Ottoman Capitulations to Britain and France.
British Med Fleet at Malta 1914
The Mediterranean Fleet based in Malta in 1915 when war broke out consisting of the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (HMS Indomitable, HMS Inflexible, HMS Indefatigable), the 1st Cruiser Squadron (HMS Black Prince, HMS Duke of Edinburgh, HMS Warrior, HMS Chatham, HMS Dublin, HMS Gloucester, HMS Weymouth) and the 5th Destroyer Flotilla (HMS Solebay, HMS Cadiz, HMS Gabbard, HMS St. James, HMS St. Kitts, HMS Sluys).
Moreover, the British fleets at Alexandria and Gibraltar played host to 17 Cruisers (Astraea, Dido, Isis, Thetis, Venus, Vindictive, Diana, Naiad, Gladiator, Intrepid, Hermione, Furious, Barham, Pyramus, Pioneer, Pandora, Pegasus) and 16 destroyers (Wolverine, Scorpion, Scourge, Savage, Renard, Rattlesnake, Racoon, Pincher, Mosquito, Harpy, Grampus, Grasshopper, Foxhound, Bulldog, Beagle, Basilisk).
The major plan for the British and French was to secure the Straits of Sicily to allow passage of the convoys in the area, and to secure the route to Malta. Inflexible, and Indomitable led the Mediterranean Fleet out of Malta alongside the Black Prince, Warrior, Weymouth and Gloucester, and Solebay and Cadiz and Sluys to group up with the Isis, Thetis, Venus, Diana, Harpy, Grampus, Grasshopper and Basilisk which were coming from Gibraltar to open the sea lanes across the western Mediterranean. They were aided in this endeavor by the French Mediterranean fleet as 7 French cruisers and 10 destroyers joined up with this British detachment to secure the western seas.
An austrian dreadnought in the med.
The Italian navy was wracked with problems however. Around 60% of the coal used by the Italians came from Britain and the loss of British coal meant that the Italians could not sally out with their navy at will and the Italians could not replace their losses with Austrian and German coal completely and was forced to subsidize a third of their coal. Nonetheless, with 6 dreadnoughts, the Italian navy was still a powerful foe, and they Italians too had their eyes of the Straits of Sicily and the Italian Admiralty and the Austrian Admiralty began to eye up the Straits of Sicily to attack and blockade the Eastern Mediterranean against the Entente. The Austrians agreed to send one of their dreadnoughts whilst the Italians decided to send 2 dreadnoughts into the straits to attack and blockade the two halves of the Mediterranean sea. As the Italian and Austrian navies went out to attack the Royal Navy and French Navy, the cataclysmic Battle of the Straits of Sicily was about to begin.” Naval Operations in the Great War: Mediterranean Edition. Osprey Publishing, 2008.
“After the victory at Kardzhali, the Ottomans were confronted by the age old problem, of what it could do against Bulgaria now. Many advocated to stay on the defense and let the Bulgarians bleed themselves dry against the Ottoman defenses at the Rhodope Lines. The Ottomans were however becoming cautious of the surprising manner with which the forts in France and Belgium were collapsing against the German heavy guns and were not willing to let their forts to fall down as it was the last line of defense connecting Ottoman Thrace to Ottoman Macedonia.
Yaver Pasha on April 19th, was given the permission to seek an invasion of Bulgaria and initiated his plan by coordinated it with Bulgarian Front Commander Mustafa Kemal and Neshat Bey. Mustafa Kemal was busy in the upcoming landings in Burgas, and advised Yaver Pasha to invade Bulgaria in a series of small probes and to cut off the Plovdiv-Harmanli line near Haskovo to deny the Bulgarians a serious logistical advantage. Neshat Bey promised to launch the X Corps into Velingrad in the west to distract the Bulgarians making them unable to reinforce their positions in the east against the invasion planned by Yaver Pasha. For the Ottomans it was imperative to throw Bulgaria out of the war. The Bulgarians were the most militarized of their enemies, and their army was too close to Constantinople for comfort. The Ottoman Minister of War, Mahmud Shevket Pasha approved of the offensive named the Plovdiv Offensive and gave the Offensive jurisdiction over 50 warplanes, around 1/3 of the entire Ottoman Air Force at the time. Yaver Pasha gathered around 80,000 men consisting of 4 divisions (the 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Mountaineer Division, 4th Cavalry Division, 7th Redif Division) and began to move inland into the Bulgarian frontier where they were confronted by the Bulgarian 3rd Army commanded by Deputy Commander Mihail Savov who had around 110,000 men under arms to fight against the Ottomans.
Meanwhile at the same time complementing the Plovdiv Offensive was an Ottoman probe into Lozengrad near Bulgarian Thrace commanded by Abdullah Pasha whose intention was draw as much Bulgarian troops as he could onto his 25,000 troops to divert the Bulgarian attentions. Neshat Bey conducted his own diversionary probe into Velingrad. Yaver Pasha and Savov clashed for the first time at the Battle of Beli Plast. It was here that Yaver Pasha decided to look into the newly formed aerial and ground combined tactics. He used Mehmed Essat Pasha’s artillery bombardment, aerial bombardment and simultaneous infantry assault tactic and attacked the Bulgarian positions in a massive blitz of combined arms warfare. The ottoman shell burst attacks and machine gun attacks on the Bulgarian positions began to seriously frighten Bulgarian troops and were beginning to fall back to their defensive positions near Haskovo.
Mihail Savov.
Savov was settling into defensive parameters around Haskovo and was resupplied by the Plovdiv-Haramanli railway which Yaver Pasha was directed to take action against. Yaver Pasha split his forces into two battle lines. The main center and right was composed of 50,000 troops whilst his left flank coming from the Trakietz lake would consisting of 30,000 men commanded by General Muftar Pasha. Yaver Pasha commanded the man detachment and came up from Teketo towards Konush on May 21st, 1915 and became involved with fighting with the Bulgarian advance guard positions at Voyvodovo. At Voyvodovo, the Bulgarians managed to delay the superior Ottoman army with a massive amount of casualties being split for the nearby redoubts as the Bulgarians in the area held the redoubt stubbornly. A flanking action by one of the mountaineer regiments towards the north near the Konushian marshes led to the collapse of the Voyvodovo Bulgarian defenses and the Bulgarian defenders retreated to Malevo in an orderly fashion without giving the Ottomans an opportunity to exploit a disorderly retreat. Yaver Pasha continued to march up north and encountered heavy resistance as Bulgarian reserves based at Malevo grouped with the Voyvodovo detachments and attacked the Ottoman columns near Northern Konush. The surprise attack by the Bulgarians led by General Mikhail Debrov managed to push the Ottomans back to Konush and the Bulgarians attacked with multiple coordinated assaults with artillery fire and mortar fire. The Ottomans had to fall back to Konush, however did so in an orderly fashion. The past half a decades military reforms within the army were showing as the veterans of multiple uprisings and the Italo-Ottoman War stayed impassive and fought against the well-trained by inexperienced Bulgarian troops. Yaver Pasha regrouped at Konush and communicated with the Adrianople Air Detachment and asked for aerial bombardment and support. The Ottoman aerial regiments responded with half an hour and bombarded the marshy wasteland in northern Konusha and forced the Bulgarians back. The Ottomans seized this opportunity and flooded across the Konusha marshes embankments forced Dobrev to retreat back to a pre-arranged retreating corner at Stamboliyski.
Meanwhile Muftar Pasha came up in a slow fashion, cautious as he was for a general, and reached Sirakovo whilst the Ottomans bombarded Konusha for the second time. Muftar Pasha then paused for a few minutes to regain order in his army and then moved north through the Trakietz marshlands and moved slowly, as he did not wish for his troops to die in the marshes instead of actually dying from fighting the enemy. He reached Vagalorovo and moved further north however were attacked by the right flank at Garvanovo by the Bulgarian troops placed there. Muftar Pasha was held up and decided to stay down and defend himself, believing that he had a numerical inferiority against the Bulgarians, which he did. His 30,000 troops were being beset with 36,000 troops.
Meanwhile Yaver Pasha attacked the frontal entrance to Haskovo and attacked Savov directly. Savov then commanded the regrouping Debrov in the east to strike at the Ottomans from their right flank and catch them by surprise. This was anticipated by Yaver Pasha who had sent scouts ahead to keep tabs on Debrov and his flanking force. The 1st Brigade of the 3rd Division began to give way against Debrov’s troops and created an illusion of retreating whilst two regiments stayed right where they were created gap in the ottoman lines which the Bulgarians filled in. The two regiments then surrounded the Bulgarians and encircled Debrov’s 18,000 troops around the area. Debrov and around 7,000 troops managed to fight there way out much to the fury and anger of Yaver Pasha, however the rest were either taken prisoner or killed in a furious melee of fighting. Savov attacked at this moment trying to break through the continuous bombardment of his position and was unsuccessful in his endeavor.
Red lines are Ottomans, Green lines are Bulgarians,
Muftar Pasha successfully pushed the Bulgarians at Garvanovo back and turned to Haskovo and came towards the western entrance to the city, capturing the railway lines leading up to the city and capturing the supplies in the train barges before attacking the western approaches to the city. Attacked and beset on two sides, Savov had no choice but to sound the retreat.
Yaver Pasha’s army had lost around 7800 men in this battle as casualties in heavy fighting around the city, and in comparison the Bulgarians lost around 5000 men killed and wounded whilst around 6000 men were captured by the Ottomans. The city of Haskovo was captured and the railway line which connected western Bulgaria to eastern Bulgaria was cut off. However this was not the worst news for Bulgaria this month. The month of May was not going to be kind to the Bulgarians.” Ottoman Military History in the 20th Century, University of Konstantiniyye, 2019.
“The Ottoman Dreadnought Yavuz Selim was transferred from the Aegean Fleet to the Black Sea Fleet alongside two destroyers and 1 cruiser. This was done in conjunction with the other ships of the Black Sea fleet as this miniature armada appeared on the horizon of Burgas City on the 24th of May, 1915. The Ottoman Dreadnought was a terrifying sight for many Bulgarians as they knew that the Ottomans wouldn’t bring it out against them without being up to something very dangerous. The ottoman dreadnought, protected cruisers, and destroyers opened fire at the Bulgarian coastal defenses in and around Burgas with some mild air support. At the same time, Ottoman troop transports from Constantinople and Zonguldak left harbor carrying a total of 60,000 troops consisting of the 11th Infantry Division, 5th infantry Division and 6th Infantry Division.
Yavuz Selim outside of Burgas Harbor in 1916;
The Bulgarian shore defenses did not manage to sink any ship, however managed to strike one cruiser and one destroyer enough to make them disengage from the bombardment and forcing them back to Constantinople for repairs. However the Ottomans continued to bombard Sarafovo and Kraymorie, intending to destroy the shore defenses and to soften up the resistance against any amphibious landing. The 5th Danubian Division which was stationed in Burgas was a reservist division and was caught off guard by the massive ottoman shore bombardment of the port and was unable to respond properly. The Bulgarian barracks near Atiya soon found themselves under heavy shore bombardment and many heavy artillery pieces of the Bulgarians were broken apart by the relentless shore bombardment. On the 26th of May after two days of massive bombardment left the Bulgarians unable to respond other than sending one more division, the 4th Sofia Infantry Division to the area in case of a ‘raid’.
The Ottoman 6th Division landed at Atiya with its forward regiments managing to defeat the disoriented small Bulgarian garrison in the area and managed to capture the barracks in the area. However the Bulgarians pulled in their last light artillery in the region and sent volleys of artillery fire at the area to force the Ottomans to stay in Atiya and did not break out of the small area. The Ottoman 11th Infantry Division landed at Kraymorie and found heavier resistance here. The Ottomans had to face the fresh 4th Sofia Infantry Division’s regiments in this area, and the Ottomans could only land due to the shore bombardment and assistance given to the Ottoman amphibious landings by the Ottoman aerial support which pushed the Bulgarians in Klaymorie back to Burgas citadel. At the same time the 6th infantry division landed in Sarafovo without much Bulgarian resistance in the area. The Bulgarian troops in the region decided to retreat back to Burgas city and barricaded themselves to fight against the Ottomans on more even terms, to consolidate the 40,000 troops they had in the region. The Ottomans soon pressed their way all the way to the Bulgarian defenses on the outskirts of the city as they crossed Lake Mandrensko and Lake Burgas as well as Izgrev in the north and Rudnik in the south. The Ottoman maritime navy began to supply the Ottoman troops in the ground with heavy artillery and the Ottoman Air Corps began to bombard the city with renewed ferocity. For five days the Ottomans bombarded the city with frightening assaults. Mustafa Kemal, who personally led the attack and the amphibious attack, made his base of operations at Atiya and commanded the assault attempts. On May 31st, the sixth assault attempt managed to break a hole through one of the defensive citadels, and the Ottoman troops poured in the city. The remaining Bulgarian troops decided to retreat from the city and retreated to Vratitsa, with some ~23,000 men. The Battle of Burgas was a very bloody affair. Around 8,000 Ottoman troops were either killed or permanently wounded in the amphibious attack and many were wounded for days. The Bulgarians lost some 10,000 men in the attack, with most of the casualties coming from the shore bombardment which had caught the Bulgarians off-guard. Around 5000 troops were captured by the Ottomans during the battle. Whilst Mustafa Kemal had won a great victory by securing an amphibious victory, the Ottoman troops were so tried by the end of the Battle of Burgas, that he sent a telegram back to the Ministry of War telling them that the troops were not ready to move for around two weeks.” The Battle for Bulgaria: 1915. Varna Publishing, 2012.
Ottoman troops at Burgas
“Romanian Prime Minister Ion Bratianu was the prime minister and head of government of the Romanian nation during the starting of the Great War and the Balkan War. In May 2nd, 1915, Ahmet Riza sent a delegation to Romania, seeking a military alliance with the Romanian nation aimed squarely against Bulgaria. Led by Aegeus Baros, an Ottoman Greek diplomat, the Ottoman delegation began to negotiate secret terms with the Romanians seeking to make Romania enter the Balkan war on their side.
Aegeus Baros pointed out to King Ferdinand I and Bratianu that the Romanians stood to win at every side during this era of great conflicts. He pointed out that a Central Power defeat would see Romania gain control of Transylvania, whilst an Entente defeat would see Romania assume power over Besserabia. However he pointed out that moving against the Central Powers or Entente were both very very dangerous proposals and could risk Romania falling under occupation itself and the nation being stripped of its independence and sovereignty. Russia and Austria-Hungary were military giants and could squat Romania like nothing should they wish to. Baros pointed at Bulgaria however. Bulgaria was already struggling against the Ottoman empire and its reformed armies and the Romanian claimed lands of South Dobrudja were ripe for the taking and in comparison to attacking either Austria-Hungary or Russia, it was a much more safer proposal as well. In order to sweeten the deal, Baros threw in the Ottoman exclave of Ada Kaleh and placed it on the table for Romania, which if the Romanians accepted, would extend Romanian domination of the eastern Danubian plain.
Romania needed more however, and asked for economic aid against Bulgaria and a favorable trade treaty. The former was accepted, however the latter was rejected by the government in Constantinople. Instead, the Ottomans focused on the growing resentment between Sofia and Bucharest to maneuver its diplomatic outreach to the Romanians, inducing them to fight on their side. Make no mistake, the Romanians had no lost love for the Ottomans, however the Ottomans were in no position to menace the Romanians in the future, however the Bulgarians were and the nearest immediate threat for Romanian territorial integrity, Bulgaria’s own interests in northern Dobrudja weren’t a well kept secret after all.
Ferdinand I of Romania.
With the added sweetener of Ada Kaleh and economic aid and subsidization, the Romanians accepted the offer. King Ferdinand I asked Baros to give Romania 1 month time to prepare after which at the end of June or in early July, the Romanians would enter the war on the side of the Ottomans. This was a massive diplomatic victory for the Ottomans, and tide of the Balkan War were starting to change, even though King Nicholas I of Montenegro continued to rampage in Albania and Kosovo with the Ottomans distracted with Bulgaria and Sofia.” The Romanian-Ottoman Alliance: How it Started and How it Endured. Bucharest Publishing, 1998.
germans don't seem to be doing good either russians launch and massive offense and fail or demand something from the ottomans
They're doing pretty well I'm Belgium. Frances northern sector is completely open to flanking attack.
Britain and France are going to dominate in the med, and then enact a blockade of Italy and AH, which probably won't be as effective for Italy considering it's a much more agrarian country compared to Germany.
Russia has a lot of systemic problems which an extra year just isn't going to fix.
I'm guessing the Turks never end up changing Constantinople to Istanbul. There's one good song down.
Russia has a lot of systemic problems which an extra year just isn't going to fix.
I'm guessing the Turks never end up changing Constantinople to Istanbul. There's one good song down.
We've seen 150,000 Bulgarian troops in action. Where's the remaining... 467,000? They mobilized after all 617,000 men and 379 infantry battalions in September 1915 in OTL despite having suffered heavily in the Balkan wars. Just the 232 divisional battalions in this equals about 26 normal (9 battalion) divisions the Ottomans are using. Add 75 in independent formations and you are up to 34 division equivalents...
Also where did the Ottomans find the necessary shipping to move 60,000 men to Varna? The only likely source of ~120 ships is the Greeks... but the Greeks are not in the war at the moment.
Haven't the germans stopped and begun to dig in they are no longer on the offensive and the fact France remains i Alsace for the entire war means the heartland doesn't come under threat as they didn't need to rush troops to other areas.
I really want to know during the 60s or modern day etc will Jews then move to Palestine?
Italy and Austrian fleets combined is a heavy challenge despite royal navy dominance. It risks owning the North sea to German attack.
Not exactly. Neshat Pasha and Muhammad Pasha's probes into the flanks have tied down several divisions of the Bulgarians to keep them from reinforcing. Tactical defeats for the ottomans but strategic victories for the ottomans as they limit the reinforcements capable of being sent to haskovo and Burgas.
The Bulgarians were capable of mobilising half a million men in the Balkan wars however Saving and Kovachev reported to Ferdinand that the army could only equip 350,000 men properly. The rest were militias and excess manpower all things considered.
The divisional changes and military reforms of the ottoman army have been highlighted in previous chapters. The ottoman army facing this war is not the same as otl. This is a mistake often used in timelines however the otl stances for.all belligerents cannot be used as the situations of all sides, Balkan war and great war, are radically different now.
There were 3 chapters in which the ottomans ramped up maritime production. Requisitioned tugboats, civilian boats and the massive increase in production.
They have, however France doesn't know this. The British are only slowly wizening up.
We will see.
I would not be making any bets fast. Assuming Goeben is in the Mediterranean, there are 3 Italian, 3 KuK and 1 German dreadnoughts in the Mediterranean against 4 French and 3 British ones. And to make things funnier the French ships are clearly inferior to the Italian and KuK ones, on paper they have as many guns of the same calibre with the Italian and Austrian ships. But where the French ship have only 10 gun broadsides they have 12 and 13 gun ones. If that was not enough the maximum range of the French guns is 13,500m while these of the Italian ships is 24,000m and of the Austrians 22,000m. Such a range difference is not going to be fun. Of course you also have the 3 RN ships that at least don't have range problems, and have a speed advantage as well. Only they are very lightly protected and have this tendency to blow up...
Prediction: This is going to be a bloodbath and the Central powers have actually an excellent chance of victory if they handle themselves well...
The 617,000 men is as mentioned from the September 1915 mobilization, at which point the Bulgarians had available about 373,000 rifles and 1122 artillery pieces. TTL the Bulgarians have not gained but have neither lost material while they had two more years of peace to continue importing arms. Since I'm not in the mood to go down the Bulgarian army history to see the details and whether loss or gain was higher (damn thing besides needing google translate is also in the wrong alphabet!
) I'd say its reasonable to say they have available as much as they did in OTL 1915.Did not say it is. By the same token it's likely reasonably close in terms of its order of battle to the one mobilized for WW1... plus the units that were removed from said order of battle during the Balkan wars. Given other commitments but also open sea lanes it should have something in the order of 600,000 men available for operations
There is a 6 months difference in terms of the Great war. Some notable differences are not unlikely, for example the French by now should have some of the heavy artillery they had on order and probably have their semi-automatic rifle in limited service, both likely nasty surprises to the Germans. By the same token drastic differences in available forces are not very likely for the simple reason there is not enough time.
This sounds suspiciously like the German fleet supposed to invade Britain in a sea mamal that shall remain unnamed. As for massive increase in production of ships... this actually requires having a shipbuilding industry in the first place. Which in turn needs accompanying heavy industries. All these are not built overnight or in 3 years. Not sayig its impossible but you are not going to make landing on that scale... with tugboats. You need at least a quarter million tons of shipping, likely more, to do landings on this scale.
Not exactly. Around ~100,000 men in ww1 were raised in conquered territories in Bulgarian (formerly Ottoman Northern Thrace) and the Aegean coast.The 617,000 men is as mentioned from the September 1915 mobilization, at which point the Bulgarians had available about 373,000 rifles and 1122 artillery pieces. TTL the Bulgarians have not gained but have neither lost material while they had two more years of peace to continue importing arms. Since I'm not in the mood to go down the Bulgarian army history to see the details and whether loss or gain was higher (damn thing besides needing google translate is also in the wrong alphabet!
600,000 readily available for operations in the balkans yes, with the mobilization of reservists. Around 500,000 men are in the Asian territories (with some 50,000 men in Africa due to mobilization), however the transfer of Asian units will take a lot of time, other than the troops placed in Western Anatolia, which were used in Burgas.
Not exactly true either. Karl von Bulow as Chief of general staff of Germany, Viktor Dankl as leader of the Austrian Army, French Artillery modernization, Russian depot construction completed, and Smith-Dorrien leading the BEF are all massive changes. The Italians have learned from their failed conquest of Libya as well (which will be expanded in one of the chapters coming up)
Unlike the germans and british in ww2, the Bulgarians have no fleet or proper ocean defenses to stop an invasion. Nor a proper air force. The Ottomans did have a ship building industry though not massive or impressive before the 1910s. Ships were being built for civilian and trading purposes in Constantinople, Mersin, Sinope and Smryna. Combining the requisitioned civilian ships, and merging the aegean and black sea ships temporarily will give the ottomans enough ships, some ~100(in 1914 the ottomans otl had around 30 maritime trading ships in the aegean and single digit ships in the black sea) to transport the troops. Not exactly in a proper or orderly manner, as shown by the fact that even with numerical, aerial and naval superriority, the ottomans struggled to defeat the bulgarian reservists and reinforcements, but enough to cross a small tract of sea.
indeed they did not.
they're normal requisitioned civilian ships, or normal transport ships of this era. Nothing special.
Deleted member 117308
The Entente will never occupy Berlin or Vienna and I think Petrograd and London are also impossible to conquer. So I think that either Paris or Rome will be taken during this Great War.
I'm guessing Rome, Petrograd.... and probably various Balkan capitals once that war becomes consumed by the wider conflict.
What territory would the Ottomans demand from a defeated Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro? I don't see them fully annexing the former two for fear of a diplomatic crisis or risk of war (not to mention administering a hostile population of a different religion, language etc. who would resent the return of Ottoman dominion over them). Small border adjustments to improve border defense is something i could see occurring.
European capitals will fall, but which ones are up to debate.......